William Byron Wins at Martinsville, Takes 3rd Win Of The Season (4-7-24)
By: Becca Cottingham Quimby
All Photo Credit: Jim Dedmon-USA Today
After the three-quarter mile short track last week, we head to an even smaller track at Martinsville. Right at a half-mile oval in the shape of a paper clip. It is a beautiful day in the sixties and another great day for racing. In the end, someone will be taking a grandfather clock home. Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace who battled hard last week at Richmond are side by side again this week. Kyle Larson barely nudged him out during qualifying. Kyle Larson will take the green and keep it. He will start putting drivers down laps early in stage one. While drivers fight to stay on the lead lap. The battles are happening behind him. Kyle Larson will win stage one.
We had the stage break and multiple issues happened. Todd Gilliland takes equipment out of the box. Ricky Stenshouse Jr was also caught speedy. We also had contact with drivers on the pit road. Joey Logano will bring us to green after he just got two tires. Ryan Blaney and Austin Dillion make contact after he made two stops. Christopher Bell has an issue with a tire. It looks like the entire wheel broke and a caution was thrown as a lugnut also came off and was on the track. Joey Logano brings us back to green. While we see three wide races on the track. Denny Hamlin will eventually put the bumper to his car and move Bubba Wallace to get around him. From there, Denny Hamlin sets his sights on Joey Logano. Denny Hamlin will make it around Joey and will win stage two.
As we go into the stage break between stages two and three we have even more pit road penalties. Daniel Suarez was caught speeding and had to go to the rear. We get to green flag racing with Denny Hamlin in the lead and just as Chase Elliott is taking over Christopher Bell goes around. Everyone is well outside of the fuel window. Chase Elliot brings us back to green with Denny Hamlin right behind him. They are quickly coming up on traffic and that is going to help one of them or hurt one of them. In this case the two exchange places back and forth multiple times. Denny Hamlin will get the lead and maintain it for a while. Drivers do start green flag pitstops with just over a hundred to go. Josh Berry gets hit with an uncontrollable tire and has to do a pass-through penalty. The pit stops are where the entire race changed. William Byron and the team came in a little bit earlier while Denny Hamlin did not. So three Hendrick teammates end up leaping over Denny in the pits. William Byron holds the lead until we have a caution with two laps to go. John Hunter Nemechek has a rotor explode and catch fire. Which leads to overtime at Martinsville plus a huge cleanup. All of the top three Hendrick cars stayed out while Denny decided to pit. This moved him back to the tenth position before the chosen triangle. William Byron, Chase Elliott, and Kyle Larson all go to battle for the win at Martinsville. As the white flag has been displayed an accident happens but William Byron gets the unofficial win.
